Positioning Mauritius as an innovative and thriving investment platform

Viva Technology is the world’s prime rendezvous for startups and leaders to celebrate and showcase their latest innovations. In its 4th edition, Viva Technology 2019 has attracted over 124,000 visitors from 125 countries comprising 13,000 startups, 3,300 investors and 2,500 journalists.

The Economic Development Board (EDB) coordinated the participation of Mauritius to Vivatech 2019 and has accordingly, led a delegation comprising 8 local companies namely Xen Technologies, Talentuem, La Plage, Rwazi, Synapps Digital, MySphere, Expat Blog and IFOX to the exhibition. A full-fledged Mauritius Pavilion was co-shared with the operators with the objective of positioning Mauritius as a world class digital economy based on innovation and technological advancement. The Mauritius pavilion has attracted a number of visitors during the 3 days. Visitors expressed keen interest to find out about the booming start-up ecosystem, plethora of incentives available for attracting talents and start-ups to launch and grow their business ventures in Mauritius.

Viva Technology also served as an excellent platform for the Mauritian operators to showcase their various technological capabilities, establish new leads, identify business collaborations and partnerships foster collaborative networks links with large corporations, venture capital funds and other major stakeholders in the digital industry.

“It was well organized and allowed us to meet with many important vendors in the fintech space” Andrei Karpushonak, Xen Technologies

“We made an exceptional number of contacts with corporate and consulting firms during the 3 days at Viva Tech 2019. It was a great experience” Madhav Ramlugun, IFOX

The event was inaugurated by French president Emmanuel Macron, in the presence of esteemed dignitaries such as Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame and Senegal’s President Macky Sall. A total of 21 countries and territories presented their start-up ecosystem out of which 11 countries and territories attended VivaTech for the first time namely Algeria, Brazil, China, Denmark, DRC, Mauritius, Senegal, Spain, Quebec, Taiwan.

VivaTech 2019 also showcased an impressive line up of new technologies, processes and innovations and provided a platform to around 450 speakers including entrepreneurs, successful business leaders, investors, and academics to discuss the impact of technology on the economy and the society. Discussions were centered mainly on key technologies shaping the world of tomorrow namely artificial Intelligence, 5G, blockchain, quantum computing, connected healthcare, the new space race, mobility among others.